Regardless of your preferred method of working out, you need to master the Crossfit Movement Standards, if you want to be a well rounded athlete. If you take the time to focus on these foundational movements you will see tremendous carry over in other aspects of your day to day life, as well as your gym performance. Keep reading for all the details.
Long term readers of this website will know that I started my functional fitness journey through the CrossFit methodology, way back in 2007. Eventually I became a level two coach, as I worked at a Crossfit gym for several years. Needless to say, I have some experience training in this style.
While I may have moved on from traditional Crossfit programming, I continue to see a lot of value in their foundational movements, for all types of athletes. In fact, there are three specific reasons I think athletes should focus on their functional movements
Before we get to them, take a quick look at the 9 foundational movements in CrossFit. In the video below they will fully explain the Crossfit Movement Standards as they apply to these fundamental exercises.
Crossfit Movement Standards
Reason 1: Build Muscle and Strength with Full ROM
As a strength and conditioning coach, I’m always somewhat amused when I ask an athlete what their fitness goals are. Inevitably they will want to gain strength, muscle mass, and drop body fat. It’s rare to find someone who varies from these goals.
As such, it makes sense for me to write a program that maximizes these goals. Readers of this website know that I’m a bit of a research nerd. I lean heavily on meta-analysis and studies to inform how I coach and write exercise programs. Do you even science bro?
It’s abundantly clear that full range of motion (ROM) training is superior for strength gains, and excellent for building muscle. Don’t believe me? Check out this meta analysis, or this study on full range of motion bench press.
If there is one thing that the CrossFit movement standards consistently require it’s full range of motion for both the upper body and lower body. You can see that in their squat pattern movements, and upper body pressing. This standard is also apparent in the gymnastics skills like handstand push-ups, and ring rows.
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Counter Point: Partial ROM for Mass
Some of you more savvy readers will know that research does point to partial range of motion, at long muscle lengths, being useful for building muscle. You are absolutely right, you can build some muscle with shorter ranges of motion.
However, you must be aware that while you can build size, you are sacrificing strength. Partial ROM only builds strength in the narrow range of motion you’re using. Half squatting makes your half squat better, but a full depth squat makes all squats better, from air squat, to back to squat.
Notice I’m not saying you should never do partials. There are certain body types, and athletes that can benefit from this style of work, but they are exceedingly rare. CrossFit got this one right. Use full range of motion when you can safely do so.
If you want to build serious strength and mass then check out this program.
Reason 2: Athletic Movement is Core to Extremity
If I have one complaint about the term “functional fitness” it’s that is tends to be a catch all phrase for silly training methods. It is also used to put down other training methods and machines that require expensive equipment.
That is why I often substitute the term “athletic movement” instead. After all, who doesn’t want to move like an athlete? What most people aren’t aware of is that the core concept of athletic movement is moving your body from you core, all the way through it’s extremities.
Fundamental Athletic Movement
Think of a major league pitcher throwing a ball. They start by building up tension in their core and finish rotating through a pitch, releasing the ball from their hand. Another example of this is a football athlete blocking another player. They crouch, transfer leg drive into their core, and finish by pushing that energy through their hands into the opposing player.
This is a consistent theme in CrossFit style training. Core to extremity violation is something that coaches are trained to look for. You often see this when an athlete uses the rower, or does a power clean. They try to use their arms before their legs, hips, and torso have finished transferring energy.
If you watch any of the full body movements in the standards video above, you will notice this pattern appears over and again, when using proper form. Mastering these fundamental moves will teach you to move more efficiently, and athletically no matter your goals.
Reason 3: Low Barrier to Entry
One of the key benefits to the movement standards, and CrossFit methodology, is that there is a very low barrier to entry. When I first started CrossFit in 2007, they actively discouraged you from using anything more complicated than a squat rack, wall balls, pull-up bar, and barbell. The only machine that we used was a C2 Rower.
With this equipment you can do just about any useful training movement including: shoulder press, front squat, deadlift, bench press, push press, muscle ups, etc.
Because these movement standards are universal, they can be done with a minimum amount of equipment. This is ideal for home gym users. It also benefits gym owners who can build out a facility for much less than a traditional gym, which can have millions of dollars in equipment.
Now that we’ve covered the three main reasons you should master the CrossFit movement standards, let’s review a few areas that the standard CrossFit movements don’t cover.
CrossFit Doesn’t Always Conform to Your Goals
In my experience, traditional CrossFit training, with a random workout of the day, or WOD, will reliably take an untrained athlete to a moderately high fitness level in about two years. This is a relatively straight path. At that point, the athlete will start running into a training plateau.
This happens with any training style, from bodybuilding, powerlifting, running, etc. Untrained athletes respond well to any stimulus until they get to an intermediate level. At this point, you begin your Google searching and hopefully run across Tier Three Tactical where you will learn how to bust through these training plateaus, with one simple secret. Work your weakness.
Work Your Weakness
If you want to keep progressing with your fitness you first need to identify what is the limiting factor. It might be your aerobic base, or it could be your maximal strength. At that point, you have to implement a training program to focus specifically on that weakness, while maintaining your other athletic qualities.
While that sounds easy, I assure you it is not. The devil is in the details, as they say. Luckily I’ve taken much of the guess work out of the equation by making tons of programs to work on these weak areas, ultimately improving your fitness.
I can tell you from all most two decades of functional fitness training, your weakness as an intermediate athlete always falls within a few distinct buckets.
The Top 4 Most Common Training Weaknesses
I’ve spent more time than I care to admit trying to come up with a succinct definition of functional fitness. The best I’ve come up with so far is this.
Functional Fitness Definition
Increasing power to weight ratio, across common movement patterns, in short, medium, and long time durations.
If we apply this definition to an intermediate athlete we can start to see where they might need to focus their training to see improvement.
The first area is increasing power to weight ratio. This can be done in two different ways. First, increase muscular strength and power with progressive overload training. The other way is to decrease fat mass. While some athletes will need one or the other, many will gradually work on both.
Similarly, many athletes will not be able to accurately work through all common movement patterns efficiently. This means that they should focus on efficient technique in their training. Often times this will be work with olympic lifts, but it can also be technique work in simpler lifts like deadlift, or push press.
Lastly, you’ll find that many intermediate athletes will lack the ability to sustain power across short, medium, and long time durations. You can think of the jogger that hasn’t truly sprinted in years, or the power lifter, who has to stop after a few flights of stairs.
The most common fix for this athlete is building a larger aerobic base. This can be done with easy Zone 2 and Zone 3 training for longer durations. Now that we know how do identify our weaknesses, lets take a closer look at some of my most popular programs designed to fix them.
Fix Your Weaknesses with These Programs
In this section I will list some of my best free programs to help you continue to build your strength and fitness. It’s important to note that while these programs are very detailed and free, you can find more detailed complete versions by checking out my premium programs here.
If you want to try my most popular functional fitness training program to build strength and muscle mass then you’ll find that below
Top 3 Fitness Programs to Work Your Weaknesses
If you want to build your strength and maintain your functional fitness conditioning then you should try my 9 Week Functional Fitness Strength Program. You can find a sample training week below.
You can see that it’s four days per week, with a percentage based progressive overload lifting plan. I’ve also included a few isolation movements to target muscles that are likely holding you back. All you really need for this program is a good squat rack with some built-in safety bars if you’re lifting alone.
Lifting with a spotter is the safest option but not always available. Adjustable safety bars are always a great option.
While this program works to build strength primarily, you will find that it’s a good idea to build some muscle mass prior to doing a heavy duty overall strength program. To build functional muscle mass, I recommend following my 6 Week Muscular Growth Program. You’ll find a sample week below.
While there is a lot of heavy lifting, it’s more self directed rather than percentage based. It’s also built around most basic barbell movements, with some dumbbell core components. Each day features a good workout designed to compliment the lifts. They can also be done in most well appointed home gyms with the right set up.
If you find that your conditioning is really holding you back, then I highly recommend this hybrid endurance training program. This functions as a complete guide for new hybrid athletes.
You can see this is very different than CrossFit style training. This program is heavily focused on lifts, and cardio, as well as good form. If you’ve never tried this style of exercise plan, I highly recommend it. You’ll find that you can really build a lot of fitness in a short amount of time.
Final Thoughts
When I look around the fitness space, I find that trends have certainly changed since 2007. The CrossFit training method has wained in popularity, but I don’t think that has anything to do with their training methodology or the CrossFit movement standards.
While there are legitimate criticisms of CrossFit, I do think it is a pretty good solution to improving health and fitness. If you have any thoughts on the matter, put them in the comments section below. Now get out there and get training!
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